It Takes Time
by Corelli Sonatas
Summary: A couple like Han and Leia could never settle seamlessly into their life after the war. It will take time for the General and the Princess to mend their war wounds.
1. Chapter 1

"Just terrific," muttered Han Solo. His wife had blown it _again, _sending yet another misleading message to the Rebel Alliance about his "willingness" to help with a post-war mission. The stubborn general wanted nothing to do with the organization, since he had served his time - during the war - and the man was rather eager to settle into his new life with Leia. "Why do we have to help them with this," he complained to her, "when we've served our time -"

He received a frighteningly threatening glare. "Would you _please_ stop complaining? What's wrong with simply _piloting _a mission? You always whine about these insignificant -"

"You know what? Shut up!" Han bellowed. He furiously slammed the controls on the _Millennium_ _Falcon _and slouched into a cockpit chair. Waiting for the engines to fire up, he stared Leia directly in the eyes. "I don't _care _if I look selfish to those guys; Ackbar knows all the hell I've been through for the Alliance." He was referring to the carbonite incident, but Leia still took offense at his self-centeredness.

"If you've forgotten about the torture I endured on the Death Star -"

"Oh right, a few pinpricks and a puny cell was torture."

Leia, openmouthed, was speechless. _Did he... Did he just -_

"I'm sorry, was that insulting?" snapped Han sarcastically. He violently retracted his gloved hand from the joystick at the controls, intending to get up and leave while he had the Princess mute and powerless. But of course, Leia halted him in his path.

"How _dare _you," she whispered through gritted teeth. Her hands trembled in response to her dwindling confidence amid a man of whom she normally thought so highly. The woman had lost her coherence when she asked him, "How can you _forget_ what I suffered?"

"First of all, Leia, I didn't see any of what they did to you. Secondly -"

Leia choked on her tears. "Han, they stripped me of my dignity, my clothing... They had their way with me, and you don't give a damn about it!" Without exchanging another glance with him, she rushed out of the cockpit and down the _Falcon's _eternal halls. It was Han's turn to stand in stunned silence.

She wept uncontrollably - that is, until the startling cacophony of the ship's engines reminded her that she had better get off the vehicle before it met the atmosphere.

_I don't care if he gets livid about this, _Leia recklessly mused. She hopped down from the ship, just as its ramp had begun to block out the external world from the _Falcon._

_..._

Han had not realized that she had left. "Leia!" he called, sprinting across the ship in utter fear. _She better be all right, she better be all right..._

The _Falcon _now hovered over Coruscant, engines stalled in response to Han's sudden recognition that his wife had not reappeared in the cockpit. "Where is she, dammit!"

Han rushed to the recreational room at the end of the hallway. No Leia. He scanned the room for anything that screamed her name, whereupon he spotted the woman's comlink atop the game table. "Why the hell doesn't she have _this _with her?" he muttered to himself, rubbing his thumb over the buttons on the minuscule device. He tuned the comlink to Luke's channel and held down the center button. "Han to Luke."

"I copy, Han. Where are you?"

Han gulped. "I'm on the _Falcon. _Where's Leia?"

"She's -" The comlink crackled and malfunctioned, rendering Han more than anxious.

"I don't read you, Luke. Where is she?" Han questioned once more, his stomach lurching for the sole reason that he was alone in his ship. He couldn't recall the last time he had traveled in _any _vehicle by himself - especially without Leia.

No response came from the communication device. Han stood still for a moment, confident that the constant sound of conflicting frequencies would halt. Moments passed, however, and Solo shut the thing off. "I hate these stupid devices," he murmured.


	2. Chapter 2

"Leia, I'm sure he didn't realize it if he was being rude. He would never, in his fair mind, treat you like that." Luke was not so sure, however. After his sister had shut off the comlink during its connection with Han, Leia had explained the argument.

"I doubt that was his _fair_ mind, but it certainly was his _real_ one," mused the woman. She and Luke were among the members of the Rebel Alliance. They were still amid the hundreds of ships in the Rebel Fleet - well, one hundred minus one.

General Rieekan approached Luke and Leia nonchalantly. It was still obvious, however, that the man wondered where General Solo had gone. "How are you, General Skywalker? Princess Leia?"

Leia composed herself within milliseconds and replied, "Fine, General, thank you. Unfortunately General Solo will not be available for the next mission." _Damn, why do I cover up for him?_ She wondered to herself. While Luke retained a short conversation with Rieekan, she wandered toward the edge of the room and stared wistfully out the window. The nearby planets glistened with extraordinary color; for these planets, engrossed in mass festivities, rejoiced on account of the Empire's fall. Leia sighed, then turned to relieve her brother from conversation.

"...not asking him to stay," came a fragment of Rieekan's discussion with Luke.

"No, but I feel it would be better for all of us if he did," responded the Jedi. "You can't lose a good pilot like Han; he's invaluable."

"I wouldn't say _invaluable_, Luke," joined Leia, feeling the sudden urge to disparage Han. "A good pilot, perhaps, but -"

It was Rieekan's turn to interrupt. "Princess, I'm sorry if I have brought about conflict between you and General Solo. If he wishes to disband from the Alliance, we welcome him to make that decision."

This stirred emotion in Leia that startled even her; she clenched her fist in retaliation for the tears that began to cloud her eyesight. Luke sensed his sister's discontented nature, whereupon he respected Leia's need to relieve herself from the present circumstance. "Thank you, General, for respecting our friend's wishes. If you'll excuse us for a moment." He tapped the back of Leia's arm as he started toward the exterior hallway.

Leia obeyed, but she broke down as they made their way out of the crowded room. Taken aback by her abrupt change in demeanor, Luke held her gaze and pressed, "Tell me what you're thinking, Leia. You cannot hold it back from me; I've sensed the torment in you."

"I can't... I can't just let it all out here! Han knows better than anyone that I don't do well with my emotions."

"Please, Leia," pleaded Luke. "I need to know what's going on. If you don't think I can handle a bit of emotion..." He put an arm around her and assured her, "I'm your brother. I must be strong for you. Even Han knows how strong you've been for everyone these past many years."

The woman, feeling disorganized, quickly wiped the wetness off from her eyes. "Thank you, but I have nothing to tell you..." She looked her brother in the eyes, feeling love for the man who expressed concern on his wan face. "Han's confused right now, and so am I. We're trying to settle into a new life...but nothing's working our way. We've tried to find a place to live -" she sniffed, attempting to do away with the evidence of her cursed emotion - "but there isn't a damned cheap place on Coruscant, or Bespin..."

Luke calmed his sister with a comforting embrace. "I'm sorry. The last thing you both deserve is another battle, and finding peace is certainly that: a battle." He whispered into her ear, "I am so sorry...about how so much has come to disturb, depress, and discomfort you. Alderaan...then losing Han for months on end... I can't imagine how hard you worked while I wasn't watching! But I know that you have touched billions of lives with your ardent - your _genuine_ - efforts."

Leia was speechless. Here was someone who _did_ understand her, and it felt relieving to know such a truth. "I don't know whether it's the Force that makes you so good at comforting people, or if you've got some sort of instinct..." She smiled at her brother, who couldn't help but marvel at how he had caused her to beam with joy. "Thank you," she continued to praise him, "because I needed that. If I didn't have a brother... I can't even imagine now."

"Come on, sister, let's find Han. I'm sure he's eager for an explanation as to where you disappeared." Leia chuckled, and the two departed the Rebel Alliance ship for Luke's own vehicle. They were off to Coruscant; indeed, it was time for the Solos to mend their fences. It was _high_ time.


	3. Chapter 3

Han was past upset. He simply did not want to be in his own presence; and while this was an impossible task to achieve, the man tried not to remember who he was. No more General Solo for him; Leia had proved to him that he deserved no such title. Why had he laughed off her tortuous experiences in the Death Star? Why had he refused to help the Rebel Alliance - which, he had to remind himself, had brought him to the very Alderaan princess to whom he was now married?

Nothing was right to Han, and when negativity soared in and out of the man's troubled mind, he was at loss. Not to mention his state of isolation in the practically empty bar on Coruscant.

A few drinks over the course of a few fleeting minutes settled his stomach, and so Han left the bar for the _Falcon_. His plans were ambiguous: he would set his coordinates for...where? Solo couldn't figure what he wanted to do, but he certainly knew what he _needed_ to resolve.

It was just before the man had transitioned his vehicle into hyperspace that he received a signal on his comlink from Chewbacca. "Chewie," responded Han, surprised. "Where've you been? I'd almost forgotten you'd left the Falcon earlier."

The Wookiee complained about his companion's failure to recognize when his own friend had vanished from sight, whereupon Han apologized quickly. He did not have the endurance to face yet another argument. "Can you tell me where Leia is?" questioned the Corellian.

"She's with Luke," replied Chewie in his native language. Han pressed the palm of his left hand to his forehead, imagining the countless things _those_ two had to have talked about by now. _Great, Luke's going to hate me too,_ he thought. Han checked the overhead switches and rephrased his main question to the Wookiee: "Can you tell me exactly _where_ they are? Are they still with you, among the Rebel Fleet?"

Chewie answered in the negative. "They are on their way to Coruscant. They want to talk to you; Luke told me to let you know not to leave."

"Terrific," muttered Han grumpily. The last thing he needed on this eternally annoying day was a game of hide-and-seek. "I was just there... Hang on, I'm turning around. I'll talk to you later." Han shut off the comlink. Humiliated by his bad timing, the man reversed the overhead switches in the Falcon's cockpit to avert the ship's trajectory. "Coruscant, I'm coming back," he declared to the dry air around him. It was still extraordinarily lonesome in his ship, and this saddened Han. "Pray this hell ceases to last," he whispered to himself.

...

"Where is he?" asked Leia to her brother. The Senate building lay in their midsts - just behind the landing pad on which they stood. Luke aided his eyesight by holding his artificial hand up to block the nearby sun's intense rays. "I don't know. He wouldn't go anywhere but here -"

"Where's your comlink?"

"Here." Luke handed the device to her, and she quickly fiddled with it to connect with her own comlink (Han had it, she recalled). "Come in, Han. It's -"

"I'm on my way," came the muffled response. Leia wondered why the connection had been unclear. "Are you close to Coruscant? Why is it hard to understand you?"

Luke examined his sister's weary countenance. _She's had it for today,_ he inferred. "Leia, it's probably nothing. Just tell him that we'll be inside the main building, just outside the Senate conference room."

"Okay, Han, we'll be waiting inside the -"

"Uh oh -"

"What? Han? Are you - all right?" She was panicking now, because this time the connection cut out on _her_ end. "Han, do you copy? Han!"

Shouting into the communication device did nothing, however. Luke put a gentle hand on his sister's arm. "Let's go inside. I'm sure he's just having trouble with his..." Luke stopped. _No,_ he realized, _I was wrong. There is something going on; I can feel it._ The Force consumed his mind with disturbing thoughts.

Sure enough, Leia could feel it too. She inhaled worriedly and stared the Jedi in the eyes. "Something's wrong. I'm going." Leia started toward the landing pad when the other called to her.

"Leia! You're not going alone." Luke gestured toward his ship. "We've got to hurry."


	4. Chapter 4

Every second that flashed by brought another bittersweet memory to Han Solo, who gaped at the awesome and illusive sight staring at him from outside the cockpit window. Thoughts of Leia - how he ached for his darling wife at such a perilous moment! - soared past his quick-thinking brain. The softness of her rosy lips, the huskiness of her voice, the bold softness of her presence, the intimidating comfort of her touch (because it was so mystical to stand beside her, to hold such a treasure in his hands, to love the one whom he had never imagined would love him in return).

He remembered when they had first crossed wires: an entanglement of two distinct, trying lives that had somehow melded together into a beautiful melody. He replayed their first kiss in the romantic confines of a sleeping beast, during the Rebellion's most disconcerting of times. And yet these instances had gone down in Han's and Leia's histories - engraved in the very stone of their undying love for one another.

"Please," breathed the Corellian man during the terrifying moments he ardently hoped would not be his last. "For Leia's sake and mine...this can't be it!"

Surrounding the _Falcon_ was an entire fleet of Imperial TIE fighters. Han could not help but to process one simple, intriguing question through his bemused mind: _Where did these come from, and how the hell am I gonna survive?_

...

"Han can't have gone far."

"No, but where the hell _is _he?"

"Leia." Luke entered his sister's thoughts through the Force. _Keep a calm mind. Do not let your anxiety control your feelings when we don't yet know what the circumstances are._

_Han's in trouble, _the woman reminded her brother. _That should be enough to justify my anxiety._

Recognizing the truth that his sister simply excelled at winning arguments, Luke sighed. "Fine. But there's still time. The Force is penetrating from the Metellos Trade Route -"

"Oh no," blurted Leia, holding her breath as light-headedness consumed her. She understood what Luke had detected from the power of the Force, but a voice cried out to her. _Perhaps it's the Force telling me to get a move on, _she pondered. But there it was again: a shrill frequency overpowering her eardrums with such strength that she gritted her teeth. "Luke, we've...got to get there soon..." It was painful for her to utter each word.

Luke did not experience the same agony, though he put pressure onto his forehead with the bone of his hand. "I'm on it," he confirmed, preparing the ship's functions for maximum speed.

Leia did not quit the clenching of her bruised fist; the intensity of her strength retained her sanity, and the woman was not about to surrender all composure to the stars. _For Han's sake and mine, _she pleaded, _I cannot lose!_

...

Han was about to grab his wife's comlink from the adjacent seat when something hit the _Falcon._ "What the -?"

The discomforting noises coming from the exterior of Han's beloved ship merely confirmed his worry that a TIE fighter had blasted at him. "One more and I'm finished," mumbled Solo to himself as he frantically jammed his finger into the buttons on the communication device. "Han to Luke." The comlink would not operate. "Damn," he bellowed, "the stupid trade route's got the worst signal!"

Two TIE fighter pilots had, by this time, spotted the dot in the atmosphere; that dot, being the _Millennium Falcon, _had hardly a chance against the mighty, unnerving remainders of the Empire. Han figured that he could only resort to plan C: to confuse the hundreds of TIE fighters. And that was skipping plans A and B: jumping to hyperspace - which, because Imperial ships surrounded him completely, would result in his own dreadful death - and fighting back with the _Falcon's_ more-than-comical defense mechanisms. Well, perhaps not so comical. Han Solo was in a life-and-death situation. Anything for defense was defense.

He began the cargo transport's speedy series of maneuvers, though he knew that he would not be able to endure its dizzying effect for long. _Oh, Leia, if I never see you again..._

Han harbored the tears he reluctantly bore between his eyes and his eyelids. The liquid froze there as the captain jolted up and left and in circles with the rhythm of his ship.

...

It was Luke who had noticed the congregation of TIE fighters near his ship. "Leia..." The last news that the respectable brother wanted to impart to his sister was that her husband was most accurately in the midst of the Imperial mess, but his honesty overcame his fear. "Do you see that...?"

"Don't you tell me he's in there," demanded a teary-eyed Leia. "Don't you dare..."

A crackling sound startled the two despairing siblings, coming from behind their cockpit seats. Leia turned to identify the item. "Did you leave this on?" she questioned Luke.

"No... Could it be -"

"Han?" Leia had already taken the initiative to try for a connection with her husband. "Han, it's me. It's _Leia._ Please don't say you're in the middle of the band of TIE fighters."

An instant reply: "Leia... Oh, Leia! It's hard to talk... I'm trying to be a moving target."

Leia wiped her eyes and smiled. _He has no idea how much his voice means to me,_ the woman figured wistfully. "Han... We're on our way."

Luke could not bring himself to confess to his sister that there was nothing that could be done to rescue Han. He urged the vehicle toward the scene of checkmate, but his hopes lay more with Leia's strength than with anything else. "Luke, let me," the woman pressed.

"Han, I'm going to destroy their blockade," persisted Leia. She surged the ship forward, alarming Luke in the process. "Leia, I don't know if we can do anything at this point."

Han's grave tone of voice crackled from the comlink. "It's too late, Leia. I'm...I'm so sorry..."

Disheartened by the two men in whom she had put untold amounts of trust, Leia trembled at the controls. "You're wrong... I just need to fire up the controls..." Her voice faltered several times, creating sharp gaps between her words. The woman's eyesight began to blur, although she could strangely see despite it.

And then she understood: _The Force. The Force will guide me, so long as I concentrate..._

What a difficult task that had proved to be: Han continued with his discouraging, out-loud thoughts while Luke put his shoulder on Leia and whispered words of consolation to her. Little did he realize his sister's absence from their world; too compelled was she to the Force. _Han, _she thought. _This is for you._

Leia thrusted Luke's vehicle forward, whirling by TIE fighters at the edge of the circumference of Imperial ships. Soon she could detect rays of flashing light that barely whizzed by her and her brother. "Leia, we can't do anything about this," Luke told her, closing his eyes. How excruciating to confess unto his beloved sister that her husband would not survive!

But the Force-sensitive daughter of Anakin Skywalker did not give up - no, not when it boiled down to love. _Unconditional love._ The woman knew what her marriage meant at this very moment: the seconds during which blasters from the TIE fighters charged at her ship, the instants at which she felt through the Force the quickening pulse of her despairing husband. _I'm coming, _assured she; and she would not dwell on the fact that Han could not connect to her through the Force. _It doesn't matter whether he feels or understands everything I do for him, _she reasoned at the climax of her newfound determination. _Because we are to love one another unconditionally, and that's what I want to do right now._

She forgot his past insults - forgave them, more like - and pursued the center of the scene. Now Luke looked up from the floor, astounded by his sister's aura of bravery. Leia had driven the ship into the pit of chaos, surrounded at every angle by the hungry TIE fighters. She felt Han's presence very near, and before she could blink his cargo ship had soared above her.

A sudden change in tune occurred within the Jedi Master. "I'll shoot while you continue to fly."

"Hurry," Leia urged him. She spoke through the comlink once more: "We're right behind you, Han. I'll distract while you sneak out of this mess." Leia's confidence leaped far beyond that which it had previously, and this phenomenon stunned even her. "Leia?" Luke called, for his sister had frozen due to her shock. "Let's get us all out of here," she reinforced after a moment of sucking up oxygen and releasing it heavily.

Han's composure resounded through the communication device: "I see you guys... Go on my left...hold on... Yes, the left. Leia, do you read?"

"Copy," responded his wife. Leia switched the gear to the mode that provided ease with abrupt variations in direction. Luke fired with passion at the TIE fighters nearby, the Force controlling the luck that brought down several crafts at a time. "We're clearing the way, Han," Leia proclaimed. She glared at the TIE pilots as they sheared through the battle zone with ease, continuing in their malicious attempts to blast Luke's and Han's ships to pieces.

It was sooner than the three war heroes had expected that their work had paid off entirely. Luke fired at the final relative enemy, invoking cheers from both Leia and Han, who had exchanged exclamations of glee via comlink. Leia realized at the very last moment - when the three had escaped the pit of death - that she had been bawling. "I'm not crying," she repeated to Han on thousands of occasions, but of course he wept for joy on the other end because she had saved him, and that meant worlds more to him than the plain fact that he was alive.

...

"Is it true, then?"

"Was there _really_ a couple hundred TIE fighters roaming around?"

"I don't understand, Princess Leia. You _saved _General Solo?"

Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca burned every muscle in their bodies to hurry away from the obnoxious citizens on Coruscant. Han held Leia's hand firmly, unable to process what would happen if he let her out of his sight once more.

Luke and Chewbacca politely dispatched from Han and Leia, intending to leave the couple alone for the long-awaited talk they had planned to have hours previous. As the General and the Princess ambled across the halls of the Galactic City building, Leia asked Han the dreaded question: "Have you had any thought about our argument earlier?"

Han stopped them in mid-stride. "To be honest, I've tried to forget it. But now I think that's not such a good idea." The former smuggler received some disconcerting stares from passersby, forcing himself to rejoice in the wife he had so luckily landed. _They may all stare, but nothing will repel me from Leia._

She beamed at the grin that had sneakily crept onto his face. "I'm glad. I wanted to discuss it." Leia took a moment to slip her hand in his. She lovingly made perfect eye contact with her husband. "The thing is," she explained, "I was underestimating _us._ I had become discouraged because we were fighting, in the midst of everything else we're facing now. Jobs...a place to live..."

"I know how you feel."

"You'll like what I have to say, then." The woman retained eye contact with him as she balanced on the toes, reaching to kiss Han on the cheek. "We need to take a step back. We must realize that it's not going to be agreement after agreement all the time. We're going to have to fight in order to make this work. Compromise, really."

He did not respond to her, whereupon Leia took the initiative and continued: "I love you for who I know you are, but that doesn't mean I know everything about you. I think..." She rubbed her smooth fingers in circles around his dry hands. "I _know_ that we will both learn more about one another through the process. But I'm looking forward to that."

Han turned serious. He comprehended his wife's reasoning, but he wanted to make certain that she knew how much he valued her speech. "I am too," he admitted solemnly. "I still need to apologize about my behavior. It was uncalled for, and you of all people should never have someone to disregard your service to the Alliance." Han moved closer to her and touched her cold cheek with his warm hand. "I have never been moved by a single person so devoted to a cause as I have by you... Thank you for that." He withdrew his hand, but she caught it with her own and locked fingers with his. "What is it?" he pressed.

The planet's sun shone on Leia's tear-streaming face. Han gazed upon her with fervent love. How much had this woman done for him in the past few standard months? She had revived him from carbonite, she had married him, she had saved his neck from a band of hundreds of Imperial fighters...

Leia swallowed her tears and exhaled softly. "You are _not _that same Corellian smuggler I met years ago on the Death Star."

He frowned. "Is that a bad thing?"

She smiled and tugged his hand gently, drifting the two of them forward. The woman chided in a whisper, "I suppose we'll have to find out."

* * *

**Continued in _A Home_ by Corelli Sonatas  
**


End file.
